The technology relates to a laminate that may include, for example, a substrate having rigidity and a substrate having flexibility that are attached to each other. The technology also relates to a method of peeling the laminate, and to a method of manufacturing a flexible device that utilizes the laminate.
A display device that has flexibility such as a flexible display may be manufactured as follows, for example. First, a substrate having flexibility (a flexible substrate) is fixed onto each of a pair of substrates having rigidity (support substrates). The pair of substrates having rigidity may be made of glass, for example. Functional layers such as a thin film transistor (TFT) layer, a display layer, and a color filter are formed on each of the flexible substrates. Thereafter, the functional layers formed on one of the flexible substrates and the functional layers formed on the other of the flexible substrates may be attached to each other in an opposed manner, following which the support substrates may be peeled off from the respective flexible substrates. This completes the flexible display (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2012-215737).
Disclosed examples of a method of peeling off the flexible substrate and the support substrate from each other are: a method in which a metal layer is provided on the support substrate, and the metal layer is irradiated with a laser to be peeled off (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2011-142332 (JPA2011-142332)); and a method in which a bonding agent is applied only onto part of the flexible substrate (for example, onto a periphery of the flexible substrate), thereby making it easier to peel off the support substrate and the flexible substrate from each other.